B/E Aerospace, a maker of cabin interiors for commercial and business aircraft and Airbus SAS won dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Leki Aviation over a contract for distribution of oxygen-systems products.

It should be a bonanza for suppliers: $135 billion in new orders booked by Boeing and Airbus at the Paris Air Show this week. Yet companies that make everything from overhead bins to cockpit controls are under mounting pressure to cut prices.

As airplane makers gathered outside Paris to show off their newest high-tech jetliners, a less-heralded technology story was unfolding back home on the factory floors of the world’s leading aerospace companies.

A federal court order that United Technologies Corp. pay $473 million plus interest to compensate for alleged fraud in its sale of fighter jet engines could cut into revenue and profit, the aerospace giant said in a regulatory filing.

Defense

The Pentagon’s ground and flight testing of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets has been productive in the past year even as software poses continuing challenges, according to the military’s top testing official.

The theft of sensitive design data by hackers targeting programs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter takes away a big U.S. advantage by allowing rivals to speed up development of their own stealth aircraft, a top Pentagon official said June 19.

Facing a tight withdrawal deadline and tough terrain, the U.S. military has destroyed more than 170 million pounds worth of vehicles and other military equipment as it rushes to wind down its role in the Afghanistan war by the end of 2014.

Veterans

The Senate Appropriations Committee is turning up the heat on the Veterans Affairs Department to establish a registry for troops exposed to potentially toxic fumes from open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Vietnam War veteran has released incredible night-time photographs he took of American troops opening fire on a Viet Cong sniper who had been firing on a U.S. Army camp. For more than four decades, photographer James Speed Hensinger kept these incredible photographs to himself, not releasing them to the public until now.

International

Alistair Burt, a Conservative foreign minister, said that the technology represents a “step on” from drones used in Afghanistan because the robots are capable of automatically selecting and killing target.

Top Ministry of Defence bureaucrats are pocketing bonuses as high as £60,000 while thousands of frontline troops are being sacked, it has emerged. About 70 mandarins have shared almost £700,000 for ‘good performance’, while 4,480 soldiers received redundancy letters June 18.

Families started legal action as a result of the deaths of a number of British soldiers following the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Relatives want to sue for negligence and to make claims for compensation under human rights legislation. The Supreme Court justices announced June 19 that they can do both.

Qatar is likely to launch an international tender to renew its fleet of ageing fighter jets soon and is interested in France’s Rafale, a French official said, while sources said it was looking at the BAE Systems-backed Eurofighter Typhoon.

Special

After five years of a rolling disclosure program the contents of Britain’s ‘UFO files’ are no longer a secret. In total 209 files and approximately 52,000 pages of information on unidentified things in the sky, collected by the Ministry of Defence, has been made available to the public by the National Archives.

Newly released UFO files from the National Archives show that the UK’s most enduringly fascinating sighting remains the Rendlesham Forest incident, in 1980, when US servicemen reported encounters with aliens in Suffolk woodland.

Previously confidential documents released by the National Archive contain hundreds of reports of UFO sightings from the public recorded by the Ministry of Defence’s “UFO desk”. Here is a selection of some of the most unusual.

For more than half a century, the government unit responsible for keeping Britain’s own “X Files” meticulously monitored Britain’s skies to record all reports of flying saucers. Read and search the full documents released today by the National Archives with the tool below.

Viewpoint

The war in Syria, started by locals, is now a regional conflict, the meeting ground of two warring blocs. On one side, the radical Shiite bloc led by Iran, which overflies Iraq to supply Bashar al-Assad and sends Hezbollah to fight for him. Behind them lies Russia, which has stationed ships offshore, provided the regime with tons of weaponry and essentially claimed Syria as a Russian protectorate.

Local military discounts

News: Pentagon chief mulls easing military enlistment standards - Defense Secretary Ash Carter is considering easing some military enlistment standards as part of a broader set of initiatives to better attract and keep quality service members and civilians across the Defense Department. Business: Lockheed pays $2 million to settle government overbilling charges - Lockheed Martin Corpor...

Landing mishap for military chopper; two aboard unhurt Two Navy officers were unhurt after their helicopter rolled on its side while landing in the Florida Panhandle. The mishap happened the night of March 27 at a Navy landing site in Pensacola, Fla. The Pensacola News Journal reports a pilot instructor and a student were able...

Top Navy and Air Force officials today told the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2016 will support modernizing combat aviation programs. Cavy Vice Adm. Paul A. Grosklags, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisitions; Air...

Raytheon has been awarded a contract valued at up to $45.7 million by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for ground segments in support of four Global Hawk unmanned aircraft systems recently purchased by the Republic of Korea. Under this contract, Raytheon will deliver one building-based and one mobile ground segment to locations in South Korea. Work...

Air Force photograph by SrA. Victor J. Caputo A B-29 Superfortress aircraft, named Doc after its nose art, sit on the flightline March 23, 2015, in Wichita, Kan. Doc will be one of two Superfortresses in the world capable of fl...

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